Oops
After the door was shut, the icy chill left the main room. Now, the question was where do we go next? To the south was the room with platforms and dark water. To the north were double doors, and to the west was a long corridor. We decided it would be best to clear the area before we continued through the doors to the north. Peering down the long corridor, you could see flashes of lightning. The only noise that could be heard was the electric spark, energy crackling through the air. With some trepidation, we slowly made our way down the corridor. I gasped when I saw the body held in the center of four streams of energy coming from large columns. Vyrellis gasped as she took in the scene. “My physical form is trapped within this arcane prison,” she said. “For years I have waited for the magic that wards it to weaken. That time has come. Free my body, and together we can escape this horrid place.” Varis let out a snicker. “Do you have any ideas how to free your body?” Vyrellis didn’t seem to have any answers. While we were trying to figure out a way to release her body, Praxis was sizing up the columns and began loading his blunderbuss. We all stood back as a blast rang out. The side of the pillar crumbled but the column as a whole remained intact. Still, that was all the information we needed to realize that the pillars could be damaged without some dangerous backfire. With a few well-placed blows from the boys the pillar toppled. The crackling energy ceased and Vyrellis’s body fell to the ground. “Bring me closer,” the trapped Eladrin asked without a ‘please.’ Varis, with the orb in his hands, stepped closer to the still figure. As he got closer, he felt the pull of the orb toward the body, making it difficult to resist. Unable to hold onto the orb any longer, Vyrellis slipped from his grasp and imbedded into the chest of her body. That’s when Vyrellis’s scream rang out and the body rose from the ground with dark energy swirling around it. “Karavakos, you bastard!” she cried. “Destroy it! It’s a trap!” Of course it was. ''For her part, Vyrellis seemed genuinely surprised. The body threw magical attacks at us again and again while Vyrellis apologized for each blow, seeming more and more distraught as time passed. For the first time, the confidence and haughtiness had slipped away. Maybe the Eladrin was telling the truth all along. The headless corpse was relentless. Gar was having trouble pinning it down, and it really didn’t help when the thing ''disappeared! It always seemed like as soon as we had her somewhat surrounded, she’d vanish—Vyrellis’s screams only becoming distant echos seeming to bounce off of every surface in the room. Praxis and Varis were used to working together, blocking in their enemy and attacking them from two sides. The headless Vyrellis wouldn’t let them get near her without either knocking them down with a wave of force, or freezing them out with a blast of cold. We had to keep our distance from each other in order to make her attacks less effective, which was difficult when she moved like a whirlwind around the room—disappearing and reappearing the next instant several feet away. Like chipping little pieces of stone away, we were slowly taking her down, and running out of energy ourselves with the effort. With one final blow, the animated corpse slumped to the ground. The body seemed to molt, sluffing off skin and clothes and melting bone until all that was left was a gooey, grey mess. The orb, which still contained Vyrellis’s consciousness, rolled out of the muck. Varis picked her back up and wiped the gore from the surface. Vyrellis, crestfallen, seemed to retreat back into the dark recesses of her onyx orb. I couldn’t blame her. We had just inadvertently destroyed her body, and probably the only chance she had to be restored along with it. The questions could wait. We were spent. With Vyrellis quiet and no more crackling energy filling the air, the room was eerily silent. Not wanting to risk running into the last lizard man who escaped back into the dark waters we decided to rest in the room, shutting out the thoughts of the grey, decayed body of an Eladrin princess in the center of the room. That seemed a lot easier to stomach than the multiple dead bodies in the pit with the one live worm still slithering in its depths. Again, we had strange dreams. Less strange this time since this was the second time we had had them. No hunger and strange dreams. Plus, this place made no sense. Each room seemed completely unrelated to the next. Like each doorway led to a different time and place. Now, we would continue into uncharted territory beyond the double doors, and hopefully closer to a way out of this place. We listened at the doors and heard nothing beyond. After opening them, we saw a hallway that hooked to the right. Lining the wide hallway were mirrors every ten feet mounted on the walls. There was no other ornamentation in the hallway besides a closed door on the right side of the hallway. That was where Praxis went first. I studied the first mirror on the left side of the hallway while Varis studied the one to the right. Varis tried to lift the mirror from the surface of the stone wall, but it wouldn’t budge. I studied the mirror surface, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Gar, wary, stayed in the hallway and waited. As Varis looked at the mirror, Praxis tugged on the handle of the door. A burst of flames came through the surface of Varis’s mirror, exploding in the hallway around Praxis and Varis and narrowly missing me. I jumped back into the hallway with Gar as Praxis and Varis rushed to the door. It was locked, but not for long. The door swung open and in went Praxis and Varis. Gar and I followed behind, rushing through the hall hoping to dodge any fireballs that might be hurled our direction. A fireball shot out of the surface of a mirror only a moment after we passed, exploding in the hallway but hurting no one. We crowded in the open doorway where Varis and Praxis were already flanking a demon-like creature with armor. There were five of them with strange, dark skin. Two had small horns sprouting from hairless heads, and the other three were more lizard-like with yellow, reptilian eyes. Gar put out a zone that would hurt our enemies if they left the area, while I used my ability to push them back into the zone as often as possible. Varis and Praxis did what they do best; create much pain for our enemies. The demonic creatures weren’t hurting us much, but the three mirrors in this room were spitting out rays of fire. While they weren’t as large as the big fiery bursts, they seemed to be more precise. Thankfully, we made quick work of the demons and managed to position ourselves at angles to avoid the flames. As Gar examined one of the mirrors, he saw a flaming skull appear in a flash before a ray of fire came out of the mirror’s surface. We decided to open the only door in the room that didn’t likely lead to a hallway. Inside, Varis saw the very same skull surrounded by flames. It turned toward him as the door opened. All we needed to do was topple the''' 'alter before it, and a single arrow through the skull’s empty eye sockets brought it to its metaphorical knees. Well, that had gone much smoother than dealing with Vyrellis’s body. So, without a need to stop and catch our breath, we proceeded on. As we continued down the hallway of mirrors until it was … mirrorless, we encountered twists and turns, stairs leading up and down, hallways that widened and narrowed, until we came down some stairs and there was a statue at the base of a landing. We crept up to the landing and peered around the corner. At the end of the long narrow room was another statue. Both statues stood with their left hands pointed at each other. They didn’t strike me as familiar in any way. Just a human male pointing forward. Varis stepped into the room to examine the statue further for any traps of triggers. He didn’t find any on the statue, so we all entered the room. When Praxis’s foot stepped on a stone paver on the floor, he triggered a pressure plate that made the floor jump beneath them and pivot violently to the right. The trap caught Praxis and Gar, tossing them to the right and out of our line of vision. It all happened so quickly, Varis and I didn’t see where they went, or how to get to them. Even though Gar and Praxis were gone, Varis and I weren’t alone in the room. When the walls and floor shifted back into place, rats the size of dogs came scurrying out toward us. I knew I had just the thing for those little suckers and stepped forw— Another violent slam and I was sliding down an incline to land in … ''filth. I had to swallow the bile in the back of my throat to stop myself from vomiting from the shear smell of this place. Even worse, things were moving down here. I heard Praxis and Gar above me, dealing with … something. Whatever it was, it made sick, sucking sounds when it moved. I tried to stay quiet while I searched for a way to climb out of this pit. But, just like the sides of the pit in the first room of the pyramid, I couldn’t manage to find a good enough grip to pull myself up. Light now streamed into the room as Varis had managed to trip the trap and hold it open to get us out. Praxis was almost at the top of the slanted floor, reaching for Varis as Gar still dealt with the horrible, rotting beast between us. Oh no! He saw me! ''Leaving the most disgusting snail trail ever, the tentacled beast plopped down into the pit next to me. ''Stupid, Zaly! If I had just used my brain I wouldn’t be in this predicament. But no, I got all excited about killing rats and ended up with Jabba the Hutt! Gar, ever the gentleman, stopped his climbing and tried to help me. Varis had lowered a rope, but he knew he couldn’t hold both of us and also keep the trap half open at the same time. I stretched to reach the rope and quickly made my way out of the pit. Gar was still on the sloped floor and was now the only target for Jabba. We had to get him out of there! Varis, thinking on his feet, pulled Vyrellis out of his knapsack and rolled her down to Gar. He hadn’t told us that the orb allowed him to teleport, but I guess it hadn’t come up before now. Gar clutched Vyrellis and one second he was sliding into a pit and the next, he was on solid—and fairly level—ground. Gar planted an exuberant kiss right on the orb, and I swear the Eladrin giggled. Vyrellis now wanted to stay with Gar, and I ended my vow for vengence against Varis. I walked up to him and gave him a big hug to show my thanks ... and smear whatever nastiness on him that I could from the pit. ~Zaly For next week's session summary, click here.